Nigeria is a vast country with considerable wealth in natural resources and understanding Nigeria’s geology is critical for efficient exploration and exploitation of these resources. This book provides a detailed description of Nigeria’s geology and mineral resources with the aim of promoting sustainable economic development of Nigeria’s mineral and petroleum sectors.
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 discusses the geology of the crystalline rocks and their regional distribution while the sedimentary basins constitute the subject of Part 2. Part 3 presents the mineral resources of Nigeria, their geological environment, mode of occurrence, localities and where possible their estimated reserves. This is followed by an account of the previous and current mining policies (including that of petroleum) of the Nigerian government and highlights those areas of the minerals sector favorable for investment in the near future.
Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences Editor: S. Bhattacharji, Brooklyn H. J. Neugebauer, Bonn J. Reitner, G¨ottingen K. St¨uwe, Graz Founding Editors: G. M. Friedman, Brooklyn and Troy A. Seilacher, T¨ubingen and Yale
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Nuhu George Obaje
Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria
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Prof. Nuhu George Obaje Nasarawa State University Dept. Geology & Mining Keffi Nigeria
[email protected]
ISSN 0930-0317 ISBN 978-3-540-92684-9 e-ISBN 978-3-540-92685-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-92685-6 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009921152 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Bauer, Thomas Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
Books on Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria are very few and mostly not accessible in Libraries and Bookshops in Nigeria. This book by Professor Nuhu Obaje is therefore a welcome development and could not have come but at a better time with the renewed interest and activities in the Geology and Mineral Resources of Nigeria. The author has brought together several published and unpublished works into a comprehensive hand-out which I believe will be very useful to policy makers, the international community, investors, researchers and above all our students of geology in tertiary institutions in Nigeria and abroad. Additional insights were also provided with new geochemical data on the Muro Hills Iron Ore deposits as well as biostratigraphic and petroleum geochemical data on parts of Nigeria’s sedimentary basins. The figures are in plentiful abundance, in fact more abundant than the text pages, which makes the work look more like an album but this is good for our proper grasp of the subject matter under review. The chapters are seemingly very disp